This invention relates ot a two-part separable fastener, and deals more particularly with such a fastener of the hook and eye type.
Hook and eye fasteners are well known and generally have the advantage of being of simple construction and operation easily understood by almost anyone, and they are usually capable of being fastened and unfastened with little effort, skill or time being required. A common drawback of such fasteners, however, is the fact that they are often quite subject to being accidentally opened or unfastened as the result of natural movements and forces imposed on the fastener during use. To forestall such accidental opening, some prior art constructions have included various sorts of guards or retainers for holding the eye to the hook, but these guards or retainers usually complicate the construction and operation of the fastener and diminish its usefullness as a simple mechanism requiring little time, skill or effort in either the fastening or unfastening procedures.
A general object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a hook and eye type separable fastener which is as easy to fasten and unfasten as the most simple type of hook and eye but which nevertheless includes a device for holding the eye to the hook to resist undersired unfastening of the parts due to loads imposed thereon during normal use. Another object is to provide such a fastener which may be manufactured at relatively low unit cost.
The fastener of this invention may be put to many different types of uses. One use to which it is particularly well suited is that of a life jacket buckle where the user of the jacket may, in an emergency situation, find it necessary to fasten the fastener as quickly as possible while in an excited state of mind and where it is important that the fastener remain fastened after fastening despite the fact that the wearer of the jacket may be moving strenuously.